1998 Corison Napa Valley. My first bottle was corked. This was amazingly lively in the red cherry fruit side of things. Still very primary, actually! Should this have been held? The acidity reminds me quite a bit of Mayacamas, actually.

1998 Corison Kronos Vineyard. This was a WOW wine. Showed much more maturity than the "Napa Valley" bottling. Not "old" or anywhere near over the hill, just warm, and savory, and earthy and plummy, and delicious. Quite nice!

Bartholemew Park Rose (mostly Pinot Noir). A new wine for this winery! Sampled at a nice picnic on the winery grounds, this rose was so deliciously tangy and zippy...there is a strong note of high toned savoryness here that is rate in rose. Fantastic.

Bartholemew Park Chardonnay (Sonoma Valley). Another BP wine with a delicious tangy edge to the Chardonnay fruit. They really nailed this one. I usually skip Chardonnay, but...

I'm going to add another tasting note to this thread because I stopped at Corison on Saturday (Damn it was so amazingly hot that day! Now the temps droppped thirty degrees and there was this amazing cloudbank driving in today.)

2009 HELIOS Cabernet Franc. The new vintage of one of my top three California Cab Francs was delicious. Definitely on the higher acid, medium mouth feel side of things. Fantastic. I actually liked this vintage even more than the 2008, as it shared the tangy green tobacco but had had a touch more richness in the rich red plum fruit. A winner of a taste!

They also had an unusual bottling of PETIT SIRAH. Apparantly, their Kronos vineyard was originally Petiti Sirah! When they grafted the vineyard over to Cabernet, some vines did not take. Their children were "trained" to find the PS vines, and they bottled a Petit Sirah in 2000 and 2001? (Maybe more vintages, I didn't ask). Am looking forward to trying this wine!

The 2005 Napa Valley is coming along very nicely, too! Almost ready!

...(Humans) are unique in our capacity to construct realities at utter odds with reality. Dogs dream and dolphins imagine, but only humans are deluded. –Jacob Bacharach

for certain reviewers and wineries that dont insist on cabernet which tastes like cough syrup, I think 1998 was a mighty fine year.

I can't wait until the 2011s start coming out!

Don't paint every wine with the same brush. There were early rains that year and it depends on when people picked their grapes, location of vineyards, some vineyards simply didn't ripen enough before the rains etc. Cathy doesn't make cabernets that taste like cough syrup even in ripe years so a lot depends on the winemaker.

Jason Hagen wrote:Thanks for the notes. The 98s are really good. IIRC they were not highly touted back in the day.

Class Class Class. And rockin wines. Like the combo.

Jason

for certain reviewers and wineries that dont insist on cabernet which tastes like cough syrup, I think 1998 was a mighty fine year.

I can't wait until the 2011s start coming out!

Don't paint every wine with the same brush. There were early rains that year and it depends on when people picked their grapes, location of vineyards, some vineyards simply didn't ripen enough before the rains etc. Cathy doesn't make cabernets that taste like cough syrup even in ripe years so a lot depends on the winemaker.

The biggest challenge in 1998 was the cold rainy weather during bloom. Set was crummy and uneven. It was essential to drop the laggards at [i]veraison[i]. Many were reluctant as the crop was small and the economy was booming.

Lou Kessler wrote:Don't paint every wine with the same brush. There were early rains that year and it depends on when people picked their grapes, location of vineyards, some vineyards simply didn't ripen enough before the rains etc. Cathy doesn't make cabernets that taste like cough syrup even in ripe years so a lot depends on the winemaker.

I am not meaning to do that at all, Lou! And I understand the challenges of the vintages. All I meant to do was comment on "general" dismissal of the vintage by some, but not all, critics!